Qualitative Research · 2017. 12. 1. · the infrastructure at London Waterloo station to accommodate longer trains and increase passenger capacity at the station, thereby improving

London Waterloo Upgrade

Qualitative Research

November 2016

Job no./File Name /version no./2-Sep-15/security level-restricted

2

Contents

Most important

points to take

away

4Awareness

and

assessment –

The actual

campaign

3Background,

methodology

and who we

spoke to

1 Context –

Meaning of

planned

disruption and

how it’s

communicated

2

Summary and

conclusions

5


3

Methodology

Background and methodology

Background and objectives

• South West Trains and Network Rail are upgrading

the infrastructure at London Waterloo station to

accommodate longer trains and increase passenger

capacity at the station, thereby improving the

passenger experience. The improvements will mean

more seats, longer trains and a bigger, brighter

Waterloo

• From 5th-28th August 2017 platforms 1-9 will be

closed in order to extend platforms 1-4. This will lead

to a temporary reduction in capacity and the

timetable that can be operated

• Transport Focus, working with South West Trains

and Network Rail, wishes to explore passengers’

awareness and understanding of the works and to

gauge their reactions to the planned alterations and

how these are communicated

• BDRC Continental has been commissioned to do this

research. This report contains the findings from the

qualitative stage

Four focus groups were held (6-7 respondents each), lasting

around 90 minutes, two in each of the following locations:

Holborn, London

Wimbledon, London

Groups were conducted on 8th and 9th November 2016.

More details on the groups on the following slide.


4

Group 3

Commuters

Guildford –

Waterloo

routes

7 3/4 30-55 years 3+ times a week

Group 4

Commuters

Shepperton –

Waterloo route

6 3/3 18-29 years 3+ times a week

Who we spoke to

Key respondent criteria:

• Travel to/from stations that will be affected by the Waterloo Upgrade work (varies from lighter impact to station closure)

• Commute at peak times or travel for business/leisure at least four times a year

• Have travelled by train in the last month

No. of

respondentsMale / female Age range Frequency of SWT usage

Group 1

Commuters

Main lines6 4/2 50+ years 3+ times a week

Group 2

Leisure/

business7 4/3 25-39 years

1. Between twice a week and once a

month

2. Between twice a week and once a

month

3. 3 + times a week

5. 3 + times a week

6. 3 + times a week

7. 3 + times a week

Holborn

Wim-

bledon


5

Discussion guide flow used for the groups

Main topic areas:

• Introduction of research, housekeeping

• Respondents introduce themselves

• Typical journeys made on SWT

• General experience of journeys on SWT

• Pre-task: experience with planned

disruption

Main topic areas:

• How is planned disruption defined?

• How does it affect passengers?

• What information is needed when there is

planned disruption?

• How should this information be

communicated?

Main topic areas:

• Awareness of Waterloo Upgrade works

• Recall of communication so far

• How will the work affect respondents?

• How would respondents like to be told

about it?

• Exercise: if you were in charge of

communicating the Waterloo Upgrade

work, what main messages would you

focus on?

Introduction Planned disruptionAwareness and

communication proposition

Main topic areas:

• Reactions to

• Current leaflet and poster

• Grey ‘benefits’ posters

• Blue ‘information’ posters

• Mail out

• Website

Main topic areas:

• Feedback on the campaign as a whole

• How effective will it be in mitigating

disruption?

• Is there anything missing?

• Key take outs for SWT

The actual campaign Wrap up

File location/File Name (including version)/Author/Date

Most important

points to take

away

4Awareness

and

assessment –

The actual

campaign

3Background,

methodology

and who we

spoke to

1 Context –

Meaning of

planned

disruption and

how it’s

communicated

2

Summary and

conclusions

5


7

The context: Meaning of planned disruption

Meaning

• Engineering work during weekends

• Replacement bus journeys that add a lot of time to journey

• Long wait at stations

• Strikes (passengers seem more aware of advance notice for strikes than for

planned disruption)

• Travellers usually understand that disruption needs to happen

• And most are fine about disruption as long as they know about it in advance

• SWT generally have ‘a good record’ – passengers feel like it has been a few years since any big engineering works

have taken place

‘Sunday engineering work!’

‘No pain no gain!’

‘Pain for a month but it will

be worth it!’

‘It would be good to know at

least 3-4 days in advance.’

Frustrations

• With timings of disruption - works being done when big

events are on and a large number of people is trying to

attend these, e.g. sports events

• How disruption is managed and communicated to

passengers – lack of information (e.g. alternatives, extra

time needed, etc.) and not obvious enough (often just a

small whiteboard at the station)

Image from passenger

illustrating planned disruption

Image from passenger

illustrating planned disruption

‘Don’t panic. It will

be better in the

future.’


8

The context: Communication of planned disruption

• Most passengers do not actively look out for announcements/

communication about disruption

• Many monitor the scrolling text on the board of the train and on

the screens on platforms (CIS) and think these should be used

to communicate disruption

• A minority check on Google/Twitter just before making a

journey

• They want TOCs to be proactive in communicating disruption and

the communication to be tailored personally to them e.g. about the

route they travel on

• They want comms materials to be obvious/unmissable

• They expect to be told:

• Dates/times

• Reasons

• Best alternatives

• Communication timings:

• Most want to know at least 3-4 days in advance, ideally more

• Although this timeline should be adjusted based on the length and seriousness of the disruption

‘Why can't they text me?

They have my mobile

number!’

‘Use the lot (of

communication

channels)!’• TOCs should also try and reach them via various comms channels (most admit that they do not

see/hear/pay attention to announcements/ notifications). Text messages directly to their mobile

phone, email and Twitter messages were frequently mentioned as well as suggestion of

updating maps on board of train with stickers about engineering work “…like on the Tube”

• What is the level of severity (no trains at all/ trains every 2h, etc.)

• How much time will be added to their journey because of disruptions

• When service is likely to be back to normal


9

Passenger opinions of SWT

The good record on disruptions aside, views of SWT are largely negative; a key reason for this is the considerably

greater proportion of commuters interviewed (compared to leisure/business travellers) who usually do not have a

very positive journey

Main connotations with SWT are:

The unprompted mention of more carriages so early in the discussion highlights the importance of making

them a key benefit message in the Waterloo upgrade

Changing the way delays are communicated, would be a relatively quick fix for improving passengers’, and

particularly commuters’, opinions of SWT

Overcrowding

Unreliable

Very slow

Issues with temperature in the carriages

Signal failures

The way delays are communicated instils distrust

‘Travelling on South West Trains feels

like cattle class.’

‘Their service is

like a snail.’

‘They don’t sound very

honest when they

communicate delays… You

feel you cannot trust them.’What SWT could do better:

More carriages, early morning in particular to reduce number of people

standing for long time (which will come with the Waterloo upgrade)

Better communication of delays – explain why, how much it will add to the

journey and what the alternatives are (where they exist)

Staff to be better informed and as helpful and genuine as possible


10

Train journey associations

Good train journey

• Punctuality

• Comfort

• Having a seat

• Refreshment trolley

• Nice messages on board and at stations

Bad train journey

• Standing

• Delays

• No or unhelpful communication when

something goes wrong

• Overcrowding

‘Allows you to get in a zone for

what you are about to do.’

‘Sets you up for a bad day.’

‘Announcements which tell

us we are stuck rather than

how long it will take to

resolve the situation – they

are so annoying.’

Some of the features of a good train journey link directly to the benefits of the Waterloo Upgrade. This suggests that the current comms plan focusing on these benefits is a good way of securing buy-in from customers


Most important

points to take

away

4Awareness

and

assessment –

The actual

campaign

3Background,

methodology

and who we

spoke to

1 Context –

Meaning of

planned

disruption and

how it’s

communicated

2

Summary and

conclusions

5


12

Awareness of upgrade & reaction

Initial reaction:

Positive but concerned

• Those who have heard about the Waterloo Upgrade works were please about the advance

notice but concerned about the impact on their travel

Want to know more

• Dates

• What ‘disruption’ actually means – fewer trains? How many fewer?

• How much extra time should they allow for their journeys?

• What stations will be impacted?

• What this means for stations in the suburbs in the future – trains stopping more often/at more stations? People from further down the line want fewer stops

• Whether work is on schedule/how it is progressing?

• What are the alternatives?

Awareness of upgrade is low

• Low awareness so far

• Only 4 out of 26 passengers had heard about the upgrade (sources: 2x through

leaflets, just seemed to be in ‘right place, right time’, 2x through word of mouth)

SWT need to manage expectations about what will be achieved in August 2017 and which benefits will only come into effect at the end of the

upgrade programme. They also need to manage concerns by sharing information on the works being done and the progress

Positive:Passengers are generally positive about what’s being done, and happy that it will only take three weeks to do so

Planned disruption is acceptable if this improves the service

Concerns:Some are concerned that the works will overrun and potentially an expectation that the entire upgrade programme will be completed within three weeks, rather than in the period 2017-2020


13

Where and how would travellers expect to see the upgrade communicated?

Target everyone, and commuters in particular since

they are the main customer segment

It is a major project and as such communications

should use all possible channels; apart from

standard channels, participants also mentioned

Ticket purchase: messages when topping up oyster/

buying tickets at a ticket machine/ticket office (particularly

to those buying season tickets)

Media used by commuters, e.g. Metro, ES, BBC website,

TfL website, etc.

Make messages on tannoy system attention

grabbing and varied e.g. ‘Did you know…’ and played

on a loop e.g. every half an hour

It needs to stand out from the standard disruption

communication – customers want it in their faces

Messages should be honest/bold

Comms activities should start early (main phase from

January) and should be repeated often to remind

passengers about upcoming disruptions; this fits with

the current communication plan

This should allow passengers to plan holidays

during that period

Many passengers are Oyster users and receive and

like the targeted alerts TfL sends on a particular

route; they aspire to get something similar for their

SWT service either from TfL or SWT (there was low

awareness that they could sign up for SWT alerts)

‘Overcommunicate!’

The current comms plan fits well with customer expectations,

but it needs to be ‘in your face’ and could make further use of

media channels that target commuters in particular

‘The more channels

the better.’


14

Main message passengers would focus on

Before having seen any creatives, passengers agreed that SWT should

focus messages around benefits – why the works are being done and

how they will affect travellers (with focus on train services rather than

stations)

This confirms that the benefit messages need to be prominent on all comms materials.

Passengers would want the messages to be honest, bold, upfront, specific and simple

This is a different reaction to what was seen when testing the Bath comms materials, where

passengers were only interested in the impact of the disruption on their own journeys, rather than

the longer term benefits

Once exposed to creatives:

• Passengers felt messaging needs to be targeted/personalised – how

is it going to affect my station, my journey, etc.

• Be clear on what is exactly happening and where

• There has to be strong call to action – making you go to look for

further information

• Highlight that people can still travel but just need to plan their route/

alternatives

• Provide more information on alternatives

• Highlight that SWT/NR are working around the clock to do these

works and to reduce impact on those travelling on affected lines

• Passengers also want to know what happens if works overrun

The benefit messages that resonated the

most with customers (in particular

commuters) were:

Brand new trains with lots of space

More space and better facilities

More frequent trains for everyone

More comfortable journeys

Longer trains with more space

Two of the Waterloo specific messages

were perceived as positive in so far as they

lead to more comfortable journeys with

more space:

Opening new platforms at Waterloo

Extending the platforms at Waterloo

Messages about the concourse are of less

interest to passengers, particularly

commuters who spend as little time at the

station as possible:

Expanding the concourse at London

Waterloo

More space and nice places (at Waterloo)


15

Reaction to creatives – grey background

Likes:

• Highlighting of benefits

• Messaging generally (positive tone and content)

Dislikes & improvements:

• Main images – not relating to the actual message

• Background colour – not standing out enough

• Make it more prominent where travellers can find out more

• Focus on improvement the upgrade will bring

• Highlight that works will be only for three weeks and that work during that time will be

24/7

General:

• Passengers see it more as an ad than a notice

• But overall it provides a more positive feeling about both the upgrade and SWT ‘I’m

tempted to be hopeful!’

• Passengers prefer the poster that mentions ‘more space and better facilities’ to the

‘more space and nicer places’

‘What’s in it for

me?’

‘It’s too arty-

farty.’

‘Seems a bit strange to

have champagne and

flowers.’

‘I like the lightness and the clarity, it’s

not very cluttered, and I like the

single message at the top. It’s

consistent with the other posters.’

‘I like the text, but the images

make it look like a bit of a

shopping advert.’


16

Reaction to creatives – blue background

Likes:

• Background colour was generally preferred to grey – it stands out

more

• Although for some it was creating association with a cruise, not

trains, and that potentially could lead to dismissal

• The way the information was communicated – it was felt to be more

direct, more honest

• Main image was seen as more relevant

• Advance notice banner (top left – but see below under

‘improvement’)


• Colour (though generally it was preferred to the grey) because it is

similar to SWT colour it was felt that it might not stand out enough

• Text about improvement (bottom right) was considered too small

• The text talking about the benefits needs to be as big as the main

text notifying the disruption

• Red advance notice banner (top left) needs to be bigger

• The text for Waterloo station upgrade needs to be stronger/bigger,

so this can be linked to the works at Waterloo

• There was a preference for the direct message of ‘no services’,

rather than the softer wording of ‘improvements mean no services’

‘You might not like

it but at least you

know what they’re

doing.’

‘The use of

graphics is spot

on.’


17

Posters – required information

Passengers would like to see detailed information on how the works will affect

them. In particular, they would like information on:

Exact dates/timings of the disruption

What stations will be impacted

Station specific information (as not all stations will be impacted in the same

way)

How many platforms will be impacted and whether this will be through out

the whole period/ all the time or just during peak/off-peak hours

What are the timetables changes

How much time do passengers need to add to their journeys – more

important for those ‘down the line’

What are alternative options, will there be replacement buses?

What happens late in the evening? (assume work will happen around the

clock)

‘It’s telling you it’s going

to happen but it is not

giving you the detail.’

‘I don’t really care what

you’re doing, I just

want to know what will

happen. How is it going

to affect my routine?’

To ensure buy-in from customers, more detailed information on how the upgrade

works will affect their journeys needs to be communicated and easily accessible


18

Reaction to creatives – orange leaflet (inside pages)

Likes:

• That it lists stations

• Colour – stands out

• Generally provides more detailed information, e.g. mention of rail replacement

buses which provides an alternative to travellers – it gives some reassurance that

there are options


• Dislike the wording of sentence ‘If you must travel during these times…’

• Lists the stations but actually does not say if there will be no trains between certain

stations

• Discrepancy about service to and from Earlsfield – leaflet states it will be closed,

website states it will be open during off-peak times; this causes confusion

• There is some need for further clarity on the following:

• how replacement buses and other alternatives will work (either more

explanation needed or saying that more info will be on website or similar)

• the impact on services for rest of the line – in particular state that the service

for rest of line will work

• how much longer it will take

• where to get more information (although this is on the back page but would

also be relevant on the inside pages).

• Include link to the website, QR code, free phone number

‘Of course I must travel; I

have to get to work!’


19

Reaction to creatives – website and email

Likes:

• Feedback generally positive, but e-mail was perceived better in terms of design and the link to Waterloo – bigger and

more iconic image; it stands out better

• The website is generic but informative. Search by station was very much liked, felt a bit more targeted/personalised

Dislike & improvements:

• Both email and website were felt to be too focused on Waterloo, not on service improvements and what it means to

passengers

• It would be useful to get information of where passengers need to go when platforms are closed/ which end of the

station and what alternative routes they could take (which might be coming)

• There is a desire to see specific local benefits on the website along with disruption details for each station

Note:

• Website needs to be mobile friendly (if it isn’t already)

• There was one mention about the GIF image in the email which could cause some email clients (e.g. Outlook, Gmail)

to categorise it as junk or spam


20

General comments about / improvements for campaign material

Generally everyone understood what is going to

happen at Waterloo

Target audience: there should be a greater focus on

commuters who will be most affected (a particularly

strong view by the youngest group of commuters)

Message:

Include a call to action – go to X website to find out

more or to find alternative routes

A URL is preferred to the current search term or

make it at least a more memorable term

Put a greater focus on options for passengers,

explain what they are

For commuters in particular there is too much focus

on Waterloo when they use the station very little

(other than to catch their train)

Information:

Ensure rail replacement/alternative routes information

is shared and easily accessible

Provide more info on what the situation will be like

late in the evenings/ at weekends for those working

then

More detail on where to go at stations (Waterloo in

particular) when platforms are closed and where to

catch trains and rail replacement buses from

Timings: work with the exact dates of the upgrade (5th-

28th Aug), not August generally, let alone Summer (2017)

or 2017-2020 (which makes it sound too long)


Most important

points to take

away

4Awareness

and

assessment –

The actual

campaign

3Background,

methodology

and who we

spoke to

1 Context –

Meaning of

planned

disruption and

how it’s

communicated

2

Summary and

conclusions

5


22

Most important points for SWT to take away – use all possible channels and be honest about it

‘I feel like it’s all

[communications]

focused on the

concourse and I’m not

really bothered.’

‘Overadvertising!’

‘Don’t bother with the

concourse, focus on

the trains.’

‘Maximise all

communication channels’.

‘Just make sure the

message is really

clear…because it’s really

clear on the website,

exactly what you need to

do so maybe just a bit

more information on the

posters or where to look

on the website could be a

bit bigger.’

‘Honesty, upfront

communications.’

‘Stick with the bold

colours or people will

just go straight past.’

‘Understand the age we’re

in…too much text… we just

don’t have time.’

‘Maximise the

coverage, anywhere

and everywhere.’

‘Leave no room for

surprises, just

overadvertise.’

‘Focus on the

commuters…that’s

their biggest

customer [group].’

‘Ensure they’ve got

everything covered,

so every possible

issue or thing that

could happen’

’Cover all communication

means.’


Most important

points to take

away

4Awareness

and

assessment –

The actual

campaign

3Background,

methodology

and who we

spoke to

1Context –

Experience of

planned

disruption and

what it means

2

Summary and

conclusions

5


24

Summary and conclusions

Passengers are open to hearing about the benefits of the Waterloo upgrade (unlike previous research

for Bath Spa). Understanding the benefits of the upgrade makes passengers more accepting of the

disruption and it is important that communications refer to these. However, the benefits need to be

clearly seen as being in the passengers’ interests – ‘What’s in it for me?’

Thus far, awareness of the Waterloo upgrade project is low. Passengers are happy with plans to

provide more information in the New Year. They expect communications to utilise all possible

channels and believe that as August approaches the message has to be ‘in their face’

Overall the creative material is positively received although some changes are required - the images

on the grey creatives (seen as irrelevant); balance between disruption and benefits on the blue

creatives; further details/clarity on the orange leaflet

The station-specific information on the web-site is well received although it focusses on the disruption

rather than listing local benefits. As communications ramp up, passengers want detailed timetable

information (for trains and buses), details of bus stops/routes, other alternatives, revised platform

numbers at Waterloo, etc.

Passengers express frustration with the way planned disruption is currently communicated; if this can

be improved for major projects such as the Waterloo upgrade it has the potential to enhance

perceptions of the TOC1

2

3

4

5

The key point for SWT and NR to take away from this initial research is the need to be absolutely

honest in all communications and to use all possible channels6

London Waterloo Upgrade

Qualitative Research

November 2016

Documents

Qualitative Research · 2017. 12. 1. · the infrastructure at London Waterloo station to accommodate longer trains and increase passenger capacity at the station, thereby improving